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Bill Nye, the Science Guy, is getting a talk prove on Netflix adjacent year — great news for fans of Neb Nye, and probably bad news for the Science Guy'due south claret pressure.

Nye might just be the virtually frustrated homo on the planet. He seems physically incapable of backing down from science denialism. It's similar he's Marty from Back to the Future, and Ken Ham called him a chicken. When Pecker Nye hears someone spouting some Facebook-meme pseudoscience garbage, you can see him tense upwardly from head to toe. Y'all can see him despair at ever triumphing over the depth of ignorance that could have birthed such insipid mouthnoises, betokening such a indicate lack of critical thinking. He'southward lost in the swamps of Dagobah, and there is no Yoda. Only and then he straightens his bow tie, sets his jaw, and heads dorsum again into the breach. And so it sounds about right that somebody finally oughta pay him for fighting the adept fight in the proper noun of scientific discipline.

The Netflix synopsis for the testify, called Pecker Nye Saves the World and by fashion of IndieWire, reads similar this:

"Each episode volition tackle a topic from a scientific betoken of view, dispelling myths, and refuting anti-scientific claims that may exist espoused by politicians, religious leaders or titans of industry."

Netflix promises to deliver Nye's "unfiltered style," merely as well experiments, demos, and special guests. By "unfiltered fashion," they hateful things like this: If you're the kind of person who loves information technology when people become inarticulate with frustration, in this clip (linguistic communication NSFW) from One-act Central'due south Within Amy Schumer you lot can watch Nye get and so completely done that he actually nopes out of frame.

Nye is a legend amidst the twentysomething prepare, many of whom grew up watching him afterwards school as the zany Science Guy on his parent-approved version of Robot Chicken, along with Wishbone, the storytelling Jack Russell. The Scientific discipline Guy has been immortalized in an Epic Rap Battle (against Weird Al as Isaac Newton, no less!). But the Disney show was aimed at kids, with commensurately tiny attention spans. Whether Nye tin move smoothly into a more than adult-oriented program while avoiding becoming a smarmy apologist like Bill Maher or, worse, a condescending jerk similar Richard Dawkins remains to be seen. He'due south got the motivation and the drive to teach. Now he just needs a nearly inexhaustible ability to allow anti-scientific discipline pablum roll off his lab coat similar h2o off the proverbial duck'southward back.

Phil Plait from Slate'south Bad Astronomy column is the head science writer, co-ordinate to the credits. Plait has his own independent science credentials, having worked on the Hubble project with NASA and done peer-reviewed research on supernovae. This bodes well for the snark quotient of the prove, just besides for a gentler arroyo that makes science fun and engaging once more by piquing the childlike marvel in all of us.

Bill Nye himself is no stranger to anti-science claims, by the way. For a while he was an outspoken anti-GMO advocate. But the cool affair nearly scientific discipline is that when new facts present themselves, you can change your ideas to fit the facts. Nye changed his tune on GMOs — and that implies that the rest of u.s.a., likewise, tin can change our minds as nosotros learn almost that and other polarizing topics. That's the hope for the new show: opening minds through reasoned discussion, and teaching people how to talk nigh topics that need fact-checking. And, when minds tin can't be changed, the other hope is the intensely satisfying, snark-rich, mic-dropping smackdown that just comes out of someone who's both deeply frustrated and in the right.

With luck, while he's busy Saving the World, Nye will also get to bear witness the audience his sense of wonder. While his mission is, basically, getting people to think scientifically near the world, information technology's been proven over and over that confronting people with rebutting evidence only entrenches them further in their beliefs. Inspiring people to wonder, though — that'south what makes Ohio the home of the John Glenn Space Center instead of just thousands of miles of road construction that make some residents want to flee the planet. In terms of what'south actually best for science and the hereafter of our species, Nye may have more than luck courting our desire to dream.